Can american indians vote

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Distance to polling locations is the most consistent obstacle for American Indians. It is not uncommon for tribal voters to be assigned to polling places that are unreasonably far away and require significant travel time, in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Compared to other voters, many Native people have less access to early voting and voter registration.

If you do not currently have a voter registration, early voting, or election day polling place in your community, you can request one with your county clerk or other local election official. The National Congress of American Indians NCAI has developed a sample letter for you to modify and use to begin the dialogue with your local election officials. Act now to ensure that your tribal citizens have equal access to register and vote can significantly increase voter turnout. Even if American Indians succeed in registering to vote, they may face further challenges in casting their ballots.

Shortly following the midterms, the Navajo Nation in Arizona filed a lawsuit alleging that state and county polling procedures violated the Voting Rights Act. The suit claimed that the minimal number of polling locations in reservation counties, inaccurate information provided by poll workers, and lack of interpreters for non-English speakers effectively disenfranchised many voters. Holder , the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act provided federal protections to many Native Americans.

Under preclearance, states with a history of discriminatory voting practices were required to get approval from the DOJ or a D. District Court before implementing any voting changes. Alaska and Arizona, home to sizable Native American communities, were among the nine states covered as a whole under preclearance. In the years since Shelby County , which effectively ended preclearance, many previously covered jurisdictions have put new voting restrictions in place.

While it is hard to say whether such a bill would have been prohibited by preclearance, increased federal protections would go far to ensure that states honor the right of Native Americans to vote.

These hurdles have real effects: statistics from the National Congress of American Indians show that the turnout rate of American Indian and Alaska Native registered voters is between 5 to 14 percentage points lower than turnout rates of other racial and ethnic groups. And South Dakota, like many other states, is also a very hard place for Native people to vote by mail. The right to vote by mail is a hot political and civil rights issue in the election — could it help increase turnout in Indian Country?

No, voting by mail is very challenging for Native Americans for multiple reasons. First and foremost, most reservations do not have home mail delivery. Instead, people need to travel to post offices or postal provide sites — little places that offer minimal mail services and are located in places like gas stations and mini-marts. In West Virginia, there are Not a single PO box on the Navajo Nation has hour access.

Preliminary data from my new research shows that all the mail sent from post offices off-reservation arrived at the election office within one to three days. Whereas around half sent from the reservation took three to 10 days. Rural whites are doing a whole lot better than rural Native Americans. And the level of trust in voting is generally low among Native Americans, but drops dramatically when asked about voting by mail.